Manifest Destiny is a phrase that expressed the belief that the United States had a divinely inspired mission to expand, to progress, and to spread its form of democracy and freedom. Originally a political catch phrase of the nineteenth century, Manifest Destiny eventually became a standard historical term, often used as a synonym for the territorial expansion of the United States across North America towards the Pacific Ocean.

Manifest Destiny was always a general notion rather than specific policy or ideology. In addition to territorial expansionism, the term also encompassed notions of idealism, American exceptionalism, nationalism, and a belief in the inherent greatness of what was then called the "Anglo-Saxon race". Given this variety of components, the phrase defies precise definition. As Ernest Lee Tuveson has written: "A vast complex of ideas, policies, and actions is comprehended under the phrase 'Manifest Destiny.' They are not, as we should expect, all compatible, nor do they come from one source."¹

The phrase was first used primarily by Jackson Democrats in the 1840s to promote the annexation of much of what is now the Western United States: the Oregon Territory, the Texas Annexation, and the Mexican Cession. The term was revived in the 1890s, this time with Republican supporters, as a theoretical justification for U.S. intervention outside of North America. The term fell out of common usage by American politicians, but some commentators believe that aspects of Manifest Destiny continued to have an influence on American political ideology in the twentieth century.²

Origin of the phrase

The phrase, which means obvious (or undeniable) fate, was coined in 1844 by New York journalist John L. O'Sullivan in his magazine the Democratic Review. In an essay entitled "Annexation", which called on the U.S. to admit the Republic of Texas into the Union, O'Sullivan wrote of "our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions." Texas became a U.S. state shortly thereafter, but O'Sullivan's first usage of the phrase "Manifest Destiny" attracted little attention.³

O'Sullivan's second use of the phrase became extremely influential. In a column which appeared in the New York Morning News on February 27, 1845, O'Sullivan addressed the ongoing boundary dispute with Great Britain in the Oregon Country. O'Sullivan argued that the United States had the right to claim "the whole of Oregon":

And that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.

That is, O'Sullivan believed that God ("Providence") had given the United States a mission to spread republican democracy ("the great experiment of liberty") throughout North America. Because Great Britain would not use Oregon for the purposes of spreading democracy, thought O'Sullivan, British claims to the territory could be disregarded. O'Sullivan believed that Manifest Destiny was a moral ideal (a "higher law") that superceded other considerations, including international laws and agreements.⁴

O'Sullivan's original conception of Manifest Destiny was not a call for territorial expansion by force. He believed that the expansion of U.S.-style democracy was inevitable, and would happen without military involvement as whites (or "Anglo-Saxons") emigrated to new regions. O'Sullivan disapproved of the outbreak of the Mexican-American War in 1846, although he came to believe that the outcome would be beneficial to both countries.⁵

At first, O'Sullivan was not aware that he had created a new catch phrase. The term became popular after it was criticized by Whig opponents of the Polk administration. On January 3, 1846, Representative Robert Winthrop ridiculed the concept in Congress, saying "I suppose the right of a manifest destiny to spread will not be admitted to exist in any nation except the universal Yankee nation". Despite this criticism, Democrats thereafter embraced the phrase. It caught on so quickly that it was eventually forgotten that O'Sullivan had coined it. O'Sullivan died in obscurity in 1895, just as his phrase was being revived; it was not until 1927 that a historian had determined that the phrase had originated with him.⁶

Origin of the concept

Many American pioneers had a strong sense that the nation's freedoms and ideals were of far-reaching importance and needed to be brought to new lands by broadening the nation's reach and extending its borders. Two centuries earlier, John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony had argued that his colony would be a City on a Hill, demonstrating to the rest of the world how a free, godly society could function. Extending this idea, many argued that it was divine imperative that the United States should stretch over the entire North American continent. The Young America movement encouraged by Franklin Pierce actively promoted this vision.

Long-term effects

The subsequent effects of the country's western expansion through the end of the 19th century were profound, and perhaps even more far-reaching than its promoters could have anticipated. The Oregon territory proved as fertile as expected (although rainier and more remote than imagined). Discovery of gold in 1849 in California (see California gold rush) and other mineral wealth elsewhere accelerated growth and the growth of several huge new industrial empires. The turmoil of the American Civil War and freeing of the slaves stimulated further migration westward to new lands. It can be argued that disagreements over whether slavery had a part in the nation's Manifest Destiny lay at the heart of that conflict.

Belief in Manifest Destiny was one of the driving factors behind the Mexican-American War of 1846-48, during which the United States captured Alta California and Nuevo Mexico from Mexico. On December 2, 1845, U.S. President James Polk announced to Congress that the Monroe Doctrine should be strictly enforced and that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.

Manifest Destiny and various other statements of moral, political, and often racial superiority were used to justify the displacement of Native Americans. Similar doctrines (such as the white man's burden) were concurrently being used by Europeans elsewhere in the world to justify colonial conquests in Africa and Asia.

The term "Manifest Destiny" is still sometimes mentioned in Canada when the subject of Canadian-American relations is discussed. Some Canadians believe that the United States has never fully abandoned its goal of fulfilling its Manifest Destiny by annexing Canadian territory. (See also: 51st state.)

See also

• United States territorial acquisitions

Notes

• Note 1: Tuveson quoted from his book Redeemer Nation by Robert W. Johannsen, "The Meaning of Manifest Destiny, in Hayes, p. 13.
• Note 2: Stephanson's Manifest Destiny: American Expansionism and the Empire of Right examines the influence of Manifest Destiny in the 20th century, particularly as articulated by Woodrow Wilson and Ronald Reagan.
• Note 3: Johannsen, p. 9.
• Note 4: Weinberg, p. 145; Johannsen p. 9.
• Note 5: Johannsen, p. 10.
• Note 6: Winthrop quote: Weingberg, p. 143; O'Sullivan's death, later discovery of phrase's origin: Stephanson, p. xii.

References

• Hayes, Sam W. and Christopher Morris, eds. Manifest Destiny and Empire: American Antebellum Expansionism. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press, 1997.
• Horsman, Reginald. Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1981.
• Merk, Frederick. Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History: A Reinterpretation. New York, Knopf, 1963.
• Stephanson, Anders. Manifest Destiny: American Expansionism and the Empire of Right. New York: Hill and Wang, 1995.
• Weinberg, Albert K. Manifest Destiny: A Study of Nationalist Expansionism in American History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1935.

External links

• Entry from The Reader's Companion to American History
• Several Manifest Destiny articles from the PBS website on the U.S.–Mexican War
• http://www.dickshovel.com/two.htmlde:Manifest Destiny

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